But if you call volunteers to the very same clinic where one person was murdered and another was seriously injured by an anti-abortion extremist less than 10 years ago, and ask them to join you as you “storm the gates of Hell” and “push what is left of the abortion industry into a deep grave” on the front page of your website, can you really said to be distancing yourself from the culture of anti-abortion violence, hatred, and terrorism? Who exactly are you hoping to recruit? And furthermore, can you seriously go on to compare yourself to Martin Luther King on your own website?

Yes, they do compare themselves to Dr. King. Which has me too livid for words. Of course, Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue) is no stranger to racism and bigotry, considering that they’ve burned the Qur’an in order to make their point. It’s also kind of funny that “pro-lifers” claim the spirit of great civil rights leaders, when as far as I can tell, modern KKK organizations tend to be pretty “pro-life.” John Burt, the violent anti-choice leader of Rescue America, is a former Klan member. The aggregator of “pro-life” blogs points to a post which aptly points out that “having opinions about race is not the same as racism.” To wit:

The article below is a typical rant about racism from a Left-leaning Australian newspaper. Typically, it makes no distinction between opinions about race and racism. To do so would deprive the author of much of the warm inner glow of righteousness she got from writing it. But, as any psychologist can tell you, attitudes are not the same as behaviour and it has been known since the 1930s that, in this field particularly, attitudes and behaviour are often very different. My favourite example of the disjunction is a neo-Nazi I once knew who was great friends with a very dark-skinned Bengali. I also once knew a very kind man who spoke very ill of Asians but who was in fact happily married to one.

We all have opinions about groups of people. What do most men think about busty women, for instance? And what do women think about tall men? There is rarely indifference in either case. So there is nothing wrong about opinions of racial or ethnic groups either. It is only when people are ill-treated solely because of their race that there is cause for concern and the label “racism” is justified.

Got that? Thinking that people of color are sub-human, or less intelligent, or dirty isn’t racism! It’s only racist if you lynch them.

The group staging this siege claims to be non-violent, but that’s a straight-up lie. First, their brochure pleads, “Lord, make us dangerous.” Second, they’re relying on tactics that inspire individual lunatics to act out violent acts themselves — encouraging followers to “bring glory and honor to God by finishing the work that was begun in Birmingham thirteen years ago” and ” bring the Gospel of Christ to the gates of hell in Birmingham, Alabama” and “push what is left of the abortion industry into a deep grave.” But they’re just protesting. Kind of how this leader of Operation Rescue West was just talking to clinic workers:

The letter arrived on a Tuesday in march. “Dear Sara,” it read. “It is our information that you are currently an employee of Women’s Health Care Services, a facility that provides abortions.” It went on to suggest that Sara Phares, an administrative assistant at the clinic in Wichita, Kansas, quit her job and repent her sins. “Please know that we are praying for you,” the letter concluded. It was signed “Troy Newman, President, Operation Rescue West.” A week later, hundreds of Phares’ neighbors received an anonymous postcard of a mangled fetus. This is abortion! read the big block letters. “Your neighbor Sara Phares participates in killing babies like these.” The postcard implored them to call Phares, whose phone number and address were provided, and voice their opposition to her work at the clinic. Another card soon followed. It referred to Phares as “Miss I Help to Kill Little Babies” and suggested, in an erratic typeface that recalled a kidnapper’s ransom note, that neighbors “beg her to quit, pretty please.” The third postcard dispensed entirely with pleasantries: “Sara Phares is not to be trusted! Tell her to get a life!”
One Wichita resident, apparently inspired by the postcards, sent Phares letters beseeching her to quit her job at the clinic. Another neighbor, a federal agent, called her at work to express his concern. “Just be careful, ma’am,” he said. “You never know what kind of nuts these things will draw.”

Before long, protesters from Operation Rescue showed up at her house. They parked a tractor-trailer across the street, plastered with twenty-foot-long images of dismembered fetuses. From its speakers came the kind of sweet, tinkling music that lures children from their back yards in pursuit of Dreamsicles. One protester, a somber man in a tan windbreaker with a three-foot crucifix thrust before him, performed an exorcism on Phares’ front lawn, sprinkling holy water on the grass to cast demons from the property. Phares, a small-boned woman with an irreverent sense of humor, joked about the exorcism. “Wish he’d held off on that holy water till after we’d put the fertilizer down,” she said. But her husband wasn’t amused. Since 1994, there have been five assassination attempts on abortion providers at their homes. A few days after the protest, Phares’ husband got out his revolver, loaded it and taught Sara how to use it.

That’s the new tactic — harass clinic workers until they quit out of fear. And it works:

When I arrive, Newman and his small staff of zealous pro-lifers are buzzing with the news that the clinic’s office manager has quit — a result, they believe, of their name-and-shame campaign. The manager had been accosted by a neighbor in a grocery store who recognized her from an Operation Rescue flier that featured her photo. “You’re that baby killer!” the neighbor screamed at her. Then Newman, through investigative methods he’d rather not reveal, discovered where the woman’s husband works. “We think that’s what clinched it,” he says. “He probably realized we were going to picket his workplace. I imagine he’s the major breadwinner in the family, and he didn’t want to risk his job.”

…

Newman and his staff have spent months compiling a list of more than 200 “abortion collaborators” — companies that do business with Women’s Health Care Services and its employees. They plan to approach every firm on the list — from the guy who mows the clinic’s lawn to the cafe that sells Tiller his morning latte — and lobby them to stop doing business with the facility. At the top of the collaborator list is Wesley Medical Center. Wesley is vital to Tiller’s clinic: It’s where his patients are taken if there is a medical emergency. Newman has written to Wesley’s board of physicians to request that they retract hospital privileges for Tiller’s patients. If they refuse, Newman plans to expose them as Tiller’s accomplices: “We’re thinking of taking out an ad in the local newspaper, naming Wesley’s physicians and accusing them of supporting a baby killer.”

The collaborator list is constantly growing. Just a few days earlier, Newman added a place called Elite Cleaners after his aide-de-camp, Cheryl Sullenger — who spent two and a half years in federal prison for conspiracy to firebomb a clinic — spotted Tiller’s wife, Jeanne, turning into a strip mall near her house. Sullenger drove in behind her. As Jeanne got out of her SUV in front of Elite, Sullenger snapped a couple of photographs of her.

I join Newman and Sullenger on a trip to the cleaners one afternoon. They’re hoping to persuade the owner to refuse to do business with the Tillers. Behind the counter, a redheaded woman in a rhinestone-studded T-shirt is folding clothes. Newman introduces himself and explains who Tiller is. Then he extracts a photo of Jeanne Tiller from a manila folder and lays it on the counter. “We happen to know that Tiller’s wife does business with Elite,” he says, “and we’re here to ask you to stop.”

The girl furrows her brow. “We just clean the guy’s clothes.”

“Babies have to die when you accept his money,” Sullenger says.

They also regularly break the law by harassing, stalking and violating private property rights. And they’ll do anything to intimidate pro-choicers:

One evening, just after sunset, Newman cruises by the stately brick colonial home of Joan, another clinic employee. She’s the next person on the docket for a name-and-shame campaign. He slows down to examine her license plate, to make sure it matches the number he’s copied from her car in the clinic parking lot. It does. He glances at the curb in front of her house, to see if she’s put out her garbage yet, but there’s nothing there.

Dumpster diving, Newman tells me, is a great way to gather intelligence. Once he determines a neighborhood’s trash night, he drives by in a pickup truck designated specifically for this task, grabs a couple of trash bags and brings them to a garage in “an undisclosed location.” Among the eggshells and pizza boxes, he often finds useful information: cell-phone bills, the name of a clinic employee’s husband and his workplace or, if he’s really lucky, records from the clinic. “I look for incriminating info — maybe the abortionist isn’t reporting all the abortions he performs, maybe he’s keeping the cash and dumping the receipts. Then I report him to the Board of Medical Quality and I get him in a bunch of hot water.” Recently, someone gave him $500 in liquor receipts that they found in Tiller’s trash. “I can’t prove that he drank it all himself, though,” Newman says.

Clinic workers have responded by putting their trash out at the last possible minute. Sara Phares destroys all her paperwork — business letters, church mailings, debit-card receipts, the works. “I shred everything, because you never know what they’ll use,” she says. “I even shred the menus from the pizza place I order from.”

When the smear campaign against her first started, Phares refused to succumb to fear. Lately, though, it’s begun to unsettle her. One day, as she pulled out of the clinic parking lot, she saw Newman smiling at her from his Jeep. He followed her for a few blocks — reminding Phares, once again, that Operation Rescue is watching her.

But brave women like Sara continue on with their work:

Phares says such tactics only strengthen her commitment. “I see up close what would happen to my patients if they didn’t have the option of abortion,” she says. “I’ve talked to women who were on the verge of taking out a coat hanger or killing themselves. I’m touching people’s lives with my work. If that puts me in a vulnerable position, OK — make me a martyr. It’s not my goal. I’d rather be a grandma. But I won’t be emotionally blackmailed into quitting my job.”

Good for her — because emotional blackmail is the bread-and-butter of the “pro-life” movement:

“You sure can,” she says. She’s speaking in that honeyed voice that adults use with toddlers. “Do you know why we’re here?”

The boy shakes his head.

“We’re here because there’s a woman in your neighborhood who’s killing babies. And we’re fighting so those babies can live. You know, there was a time that people of your color didn’t have the right to be born, either. And lots of good people fought hard to help them gain rights. Isn’t that a good thing?”

The boy nods, his eyes downcast.

“If you know this lady, you can help us by telling her that we want to help her find a new job. Can you tell her that for me?”

The boy nods again, then slinks past and takes off on his bike.

But it’s just sidewalk ministry! It’s a peaceful protest! They’re just talking!

The siege on the Birmingham clinic is headed by Operation Save America leader Flip Benham, who has some friends in very high places — and some friends who are very dangerous. Benham and other “pro-life” activists will insist that their movement isn’t violent, and that it’s only a handful of extremists who are taking these kinds of actions. That would be believable if not for statistics — like the fact that in 1996, almost a third of abortion clinics reported violent attacks. And the fact that there have been 24 murders or attempted murders. 41 bombings. 173 arsons. 93 attempted bombings and arsons. 378 invasions. 1292 acts of vandalism. 1702 tresspassings. 100 butyric acid attacks. 655 anthrax threats. 162 assault & batteries. 385 death threats. 4 kidnappings. 126 burglaries. 487 stalkings. 11725 incidents of hate mail/harassing calls. 101 hoax packages and devices. 620 bomb threats. 751 clinic blockades.

Peaceful and non-violent my ass.

You can help by pledging a picket — promising to donate some amount per picketer per day in order to raise money for Planned Parenthood. NOW is also accepting donations for clinic defense in Birmingham.

Thanks to Amie, Angie, and all the other awesome readers who sent links and information about this anti-choice assault.

I am so glad there are people out there like Ms. Phares, unwilling to be intimidated into quitting helping women. I’m sure she’s not paid nearly enough to put up with this bullshit.

And the work that Dr. Tiller does is so important. There are very few places women needing second-trimester abortions can go, and most of those women are either very sick themselves or their fetuses have disabilities incompatible with life.

Thank you Dr. Tiller, thank you Sara Phares, and all the nurses and techs and janitors and receptionists who are there for women in need every day.

Tiny

July 6, 2007 at 6:32 pm

Thank you, thank you for that data. What a great document to pull out, when anti-choicers start bleating about life.

Oh…this is so disgusting. These people use Jesus’ name, but I doubt he’d have any kind words for them. I seem to recall something about not throwing stones at fellow sinners* being a big deal for him. Guess that matters less than the thrill of hating and violence.

* I don’t believe Phares or others are sinners…just pointing out that even if I did, I would be ashamed to see them treated this way.

Lee

July 6, 2007 at 6:45 pm

Ms. Phares is so brave. I can’t imagine enduring that kind of harassment.

And I think it’s telling that the anit-choicers are trying to get the Wesley Medical Center to stop hospital priveleges for women undergoing abortions that have a medical emergency. None of these people actually care about preserving life; all they want to preserve is control and the ability to shame women for having sex without wanting babies. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if you don’t like abortions, don’t get one. It’s not up to you to decide what people should do with their bodies, be it abortion, tattoos and piercings, or drinking on Sunday.

betina

July 6, 2007 at 6:49 pm

What. The. Fuck.

Tricia(freya)

July 6, 2007 at 7:05 pm

A correction — The Birmingham Planned Parenthood clinic is not the clinic Rudolph bombed, that was New Woman All Women Health Care. They are near each other and it wouldn’t surprise me if OSA plans to picket them both, but the only official notice I’ve heard about is at PP.

A correction — The Birmingham Planned Parenthood clinic is not the clinic Rudolph bombed, that was New Woman All Women Health Care. They are near each other and it wouldn’t surprise me if OSA plans to picket them both, but the only official notice I’ve heard about is at PP.

The New Woman clinic is the one that was bombed, and the same one that’s being attacked now, at least according to the Feminist Majority. Planned Parenthood is aiding in the clinic defense of New Woman, and I think they’re being picketed too.

Thank you SO MUCH for this post! It was so much more comprehensive and awesome that I was expecting and it just made me even more grateful for Planned Parenthood, and for the fact that Planned Parenthood of Alabama operates Mississippi’s only PP clinic.

This was truly inspiring and inviograting. Thanks again!

TheBends

July 6, 2007 at 8:07 pm

Well that certainly goes way beyond hypocrisy and straight into insanity territory if you ask me. It is funny how so many attempt to mask disgraceful behaviour with righteousness. Still, its good to know their efforts are in vain, because women like Sara Phares are not intimidated by their barbarism.

I think they focus on Birmingham and the civil rights movement for a reason—the anti-choice movement comes from the same set of Protestant churches that failed to maintain segregation and the anti-choice movement is a renewed attempt to find a way to oppress others so they can gain their self-esteem, which is based on putting down others, back.

Michael, surely you see why it’s so easy, when you oppose a woman’s basic human rights, you’ll slip into feeling it’s easy to kill her? Once you have determined that women are subhuman with your “pro-life” opinions about how women have no right to control their own bodies, then it’s easy to justify killing. As Jill’s statistics show.

Tricia(freya)

July 6, 2007 at 9:07 pm

For any other readers who are local to B’ham or willing to travel — follow the NOW link at the end of Jill’s post (or this one for the local chapter http://www.alabamanow.org/) for more info and contact links for the clinics’ defense and other scheduled reproductive freedom events surrounding OSA’s “visit.”

I did talk to my neighborhood president and she confirmed that OSA has permits for protesters at both clinics.

The owner of the apartment building that they’re standing in front of asks if they can stand somewhere else, maybe across the street.

“We’re not leaving,” says Sullenger. “This is the most effective place for us to get out our message.”

“You’re making me uncomfortable,” the woman says, fingering the brooch on her polyester pantsuit.

“You don’t have the right to be comfortable,” Sullenger says.

That last line by Sullenger says it all.
I volunteered at Planned Parenthood as a patient escort for about a year, I must say that the protesters we had were lambs compared to these nuts, although I was careful to shred all my mail and take detourson my way home after my shift, just in case. I wondered how they’d feel to know I only lived a block away from the clinic!

I’m curious as to where you found the data for the last bit. Honestly, the numbers sound low but low or otherwise, I’m curious as to how the data was tabulated.

Kristen

July 7, 2007 at 12:52 am

How is Ms. Phares not able to get a restraining order against these people? Do they have a special pass to harass her and go through her garbage because they’re doing it for “political” reasons?

If I were to guess I would say it probably because Alabama, like many states, does not grant restraining orders except in DV cases or relating to pending civil/criminal matters. Since she’s never had a “relationship” with these evil people, no restraining order. Perhaps she might be able to press charges for stalking, but that requires evidence of a credible threat…so even there she may be SOL.

Perhaps she might be able to press charges for stalking, but that requires evidence of a credible threat…so even there she may be SOL.

I’d say she could point to the dozens of clinic workers who have been injured or killed and say that she has no idea when her stalkers will snap, but it’s clearly only a matter of time.

Of course, that would require the cops to be willing to protect her and the clinic, and that ain’t gonna happen. They’ll let her be hurt or killed and then say, “Who knew?”

Elizabeth Barnes

July 7, 2007 at 3:56 am

I don’t have a lot of money but I send what I can to PP when I can. I live in a red state where there are only two abortion clinics in the whole state (that I know of) and I have heard they have to deal with this stuff all the time. It is deeply unsettling. But good on women and men who keep their jobs and don’t give in to the antichoicers. I just can’t imagine this is what God would want them to do. It just doesn’t make a lick of sense and like I said it really upsets me. If anything this has made my mind up to go help those two lone abortion clinics in my state. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

Why are these people able to get away with putting that kind of speech on their website? Imagine if Newman used “Allah” instead of “Jesus”, “Lord”, and “God” in his rants and had a middle eastern-sounding name. I have a feeling he would get a visit from Homeland Security pretty quickly.

The people organizing this event were NOT trying to distance themselves from violence. They are the people who have supported the violence all along. They are not “mainstream” pro-life, but rather the same terrorist sect that has perpertrated violence for years.

The mainstream pro-life movement rejects these “Army of God” people. The mainstream pro-life movement rejects violence. It is dishonest to join the mainstream pro-life movement to the “reinactment”.

It is dishonest to join the mainstream pro-life movement to the “reinactment”.

Not dishonest. Their actions are merely an outgrowth of the rhetoric of the anti-choice movement. It was only a matter of time before zealots began to kill people because of their devotion to the anti-choice movement.

Nymphalidae

July 7, 2007 at 11:39 am

The mainstream pro-life movement rejects violence.

I’ve seen you guys drive around my town in your garish van with the photos of the bloody aborted fetuses on the sides, so don’t pretend like you’re not all of a piece, please.

Advocating forced birth is advocating violence against women.

Elizabeth Barnes

July 7, 2007 at 11:54 am

I have to agree with Nymphalidae. Pro lifers, antichoicers at least the majority I have seen in my home state are far from peaceful.

Kristen

July 7, 2007 at 1:11 pm

I’d say she could point to the dozens of clinic workers who have been injured or killed and say that she has no idea when her stalkers will snap, but it’s clearly only a matter of time.

Actually, its worse than that (and why anti-stalking laws bug the shit out of me) generally you have prove that a credible threat was made by the specific individual being charged…Because when people threaten you they generally do it in writing, with a notarized copy cc-ing the local police station and saying “I really mean it and have the time, ability, and access to carry out this threat.”

*headdesk*

Bitter Scribe

July 7, 2007 at 2:19 pm

How is this kind of harassment not illegal? Where are the restraining orders?

Of course, that would require the cops to be willing to protect her and the clinic, and that ain’t gonna happen. They’ll let her be hurt or killed and then say, “Who knew?”

I take issue with that comment. When the clinic was attacked, a policeman was killed trying to protect it. I think we owe it to him and his family to recognize that the police are actually willing to do their job.

Tricia(freya)

July 7, 2007 at 3:01 pm

Here in Birmingham at least Kristjan would be right, but Ms. Phares is not located in Alabama — according to the info above, she’s in Kansas. I can’t speak to how conservative-leaning their PD is.

But yes, locally Rudolph is a cop-killer and pretty thoroughly hated by our department. His “friends” aren’t going to be getting a warm fuzzy welcome from the local precinct.

Jasmine

July 7, 2007 at 3:15 pm

How is this kind of harassment not illegal? Where are the restraining orders?

Well Bitter Scribe, in my experience volunteering at PP, I’ve learned that the anti-choice movement knows the law pretty well and is pretty good at making sure they can skate around it without actually breaking it. It truely does suck beause it is disgusting how these people can get away with what they’re doing to Sarah Phares and other clinic workers.

The cop worked there as security. He was, in fact, anti-choice, so the antis killed one of their own.

still censored...

July 7, 2007 at 5:26 pm

“The mainstream pro-life movement rejects these “Army of God” people. The mainstream pro-life movement rejects violence. It is dishonest to join the mainstream pro-life movement to the “reinactment”.” – Lauren

Oh, well if that’s the case, then that explains why I hear so much protest and condemnation of these groups and their tactics from “mainstream” anti-choicers. Oh but wait – I hear absolutely nothing from them, just a sad little excuse from people like you every once in a while, on some blog.

I too used to volunteer at a Planned Parenthood, where “mainstream” anti-choicers, many of them with Operation Rescue and church groups (it doesn’t get much more mainstream than that, in terms of clinic protesters), would regularly swear and scream (at the top of their lungs) at the volunteers, the patients and their families; impersonated police officers to deter women from entering; stepped up to people’s faces or physically blocked their path; followed people to their cars, or for several blocks down the street; found out the identity of a couple of volunteers and harassed them at home and at their workplaces; took photographs of patients in their cars; and took photographs of volunteers, presumably to post them online for identification / targeting. As someone else noted above, I regularly took detours on my way home; never carried ID with me lest it fall out and they find out my name; and there were a number of other security measures in place.

So, yeah, that’s a hell of a lot of intimidation and harassment, and yes, violence. You’re either stupid or wilfully ignorant if you don’t think “mainstream” protesters aren’t engaging in these tactics every day at clinics across this country. not to mention what someone else already said: a pro-forced pregnancy position is inherently violent against women.

This pisses me off.
Thanks to the previous commenter for the links to Alabama NOW. I just moved back to Birmingham from the Northeast… I had almost forgotten how crazy the religious right is here (among other places). Time to get active locally!

Lindsay

July 8, 2007 at 1:00 am

I just sent a letter to the editor of a local newspaper here in my hometown about these people and how they should be labeled terrorists and watched like Muslim terrorists are. I live in Ky, so I’m pretty sure some freak anti-choicer won’t like what I wrote. But still, I feel like I at least did something even if it may have no affect at all.

But I am going to volunteer at Planned Parenthood this semester when I am in Lexington. I’m nervous about it, but I just feel like it’s something I must do.

Thank you SO MUCH for this post! It was so much more comprehensive and awesome that I was expecting and it just made me even more grateful for Planned Parenthood, and for the fact that Planned Parenthood of Alabama operates Mississippi’s only PP clinic.

Actually, there is no longer any PP clinic in the entire state of Mississippi, only an administrative office that enables PP to maintain a virtual presence there.

Thanks so much for this post, Jill. It provides a comprehensive overview of what providers of abortion care must accept as everyday reality — and of why safe and professional abortion care is already “safe, legal and RARE.”

still censored...

July 8, 2007 at 2:12 pm

bridgetka, I have to concur. As a rule i avoid clicking over to anti-choice blogs, so I don’t get all rageful and stuff, but hers just made me feel like I was watching a kitten try to catch a flashlight beam.

kxo

July 8, 2007 at 7:18 pm

I’ll be linking to this from my LJ.

Some news out of North Florida:
I work for a women’s clinic that performs abortions. Our sister clinic, headed by Planned Parenthood, was found vandalized on Friday morning. My boyfriend took over as our clinic escort when I got hired, and he said the protesters were particularly abusive to him and our patients that day. Plus, their numbers nearly doubled that afternoon.